Publisher to stand in for Pinter at Nobel ceremony

Wednesday 23 November 2005 20.03 EST
First published on Wednesday 23 November 2005 20.03 EST

Harold Pinter, who won this year's Nobel prize for literature, will not attend next month's award ceremony in Stockholm for health reasons.

The playwright and poet's publisher, Stephen Page, will accept the award on his behalf on December 10. But Pinter, 75, who has been treated for cancer, will deliver a traditional lecture to the Swedish Academy on December 7, to be broadcast live on Channel 4.

The prize citation says Pinter "restored theatre to its basic elements: an enclosed space and unpredictable dialogue where people are at the mercy of each other and pretence crumbles".